Disney Wants Drew Struzan to Design 'Star Wars: Episode VII' Posters

Well, here's some hopeful news for Star Wars: Episode VII. No, we don't have any word on a director yet, but a familiar face to fans of the sci-fi saga will be pleased with this news. Fanhattan (via Bleeding Cool) recently had a chat with iconic poster artist Drew Struzan and asked the retired master of movie posters whether he might get back in the groove with the new Star Wars films. The good news is that Disney has already approached Struzan to do some work for the new trilogy, which will see the first installment release sometime in 2015, but the bad news is that Struzan hasn't decided whether he'll actually do it. More below!

Here's what Struzan said when asked if Star Wars would put him back to work:

Oh, well, never say never… in fact, I got a couple calls already this week on Star Wars from Disney… You know, I spent 35 years painting Star Wars. I painted Star Wars before most of you were born! But I guess there is always a chance. There’s no intention.

I'm not sure how Star Wars posters without the touch of Drew Struzan would look, though I'm sure there's a few artists who could do their best to impersonate his trademark style. At least Struzan isn't ruling it out, but surely being retired would be a reasonable excuse for him not to return. Anyway, let's figure just what the hell Disney is doing with the franchise over the next few years before anything. Who will direct Episode VII? What's going on with these spin-offs that may or may not include Zack Snyder and Jedi samurai? Spill some of the beans, Disney! We're hungry!

I had enough of the Star Wars related news until the actual Star Wars movie.With all this uberhype there's no way it's not going to be a let down.See Prometheus.

Greg dinskisk

Hah! "Hopeful news..." A New Hope? Hah... I'm amused easily...

The Truth

How old is he? if his hands aren't shaky, he could still do this...

David Banner

66. And only "semi-retired".

lattimore

Drew Struzan is 'THE MAN' he basically single handedly illustrated the entire 1980's of film. Although Struzan gets mostly all of the credit for the many Star Wars posters and their iterations he created over the years, it should be noted that the original and most iconic Star Wars poster was illustrated by Tom Jung.
In saying this, it would be an absolute joy to see Struzan put his mark on the new films as almost a homage to himself and his incredible legacy of work.

Scopedog

Both Struzan and the late John Alvin were the undisputed masters of 1980s movie posters. Very glad that Struzan is still with us, but very sad that Alvin has passed on. Alvin's art can be found here:
http://www.johnalvinart.com/Default.aspx
And you're right about Jung's poster (and then there was the one done by the Brothers Hildebrandt, too).

castingcouch

I think I prefer John Alvin's portfolio of movie posters to Drew Struzan's. They seem to have more variety of style.

James Jean could do it. Drew is great, but from any interview I heard from him, it seemed he'd had enough, but the dirty money may change that.

David Banner

"....may or may not include Zack Snyder and Jedi samurai?"
You wrote this a week+ ago and didn't correct it later-sloppy.
It's hard to imagine Star Wars without Struzan. Just look at all the horrible photosession+photoshop posters for Episodes I-III......*shakes head each time he sees them*
Struzan is a master, and I am a proud owner of several original works of his.

Yeah-yeah I know, but there were quite a few photosession posters that were dreadful-to the point that I thought they were meant as a joke.
Look for them online, they are horrible

Scopedog

"Struzan is a master, and I am a proud owner of several original works of his."
You, sir, have my eternal respect.

Kevin E.

I'm such a fan of Drew's I love to study his art on his website. After getting his illustration DVD it's so cool to understand his process and see his technique detailed in his work. I hope he does the new Star Wars poster, it wouldn't be the same without him.